Windows Search has been one of the most frustrating parts of Windows 11, and now Microsoft is addressing this with a significant overhaul. A new redesigned Windows Search is now in testing that is much faster, more capable, and a lot more modern.
“This new Windows Search experience is built for speed,” says Anshul Rawat, corporate vice president of the Windows product team at Microsoft. “It’s built on WinUI 3 and is part of our broader investment in modernizing our core Windows experiences.”
Microsoft says early testing of this new search has shown “substantial improvements in performance and memory usage,” meaning the company isn’t adding extra bloat to Windows to improve search, either. The UI has also been greatly improved, with speedy animations and a large preview pane.
While search is being overhauled visually, behind the scenes Microsoft is also improving the basics. “We’re also improving how Windows Search understands what you’re looking for, including better matching for typos and synonyms,” says Rawat.
I got to try out this new Windows Search interface at Microsoft’s Windows and Surface event yesterday, and I was impressed with just how quick it is and how decluttered it feels. Right now if you search for something like the height of an actor it will take a few seconds to figure it out and show you essentially a miniature Bing result.
The new Windows Search just surfaces the result inline, much like the modern search interfaces you see in iOS and Android. These inline results also extend to previews of PowerPoint presentations, photos, and other files.
The most impressive part of this new Windows Search is being able to use it like a launcher, just like many third-party tools, and have it take actions for tasks like turning Bluetooth or dark mode on and off. You can even ask search to minimize windows, or open apps side-by-side. If you use Phone Link, these actions will also extend to your phone so you could simply type “text mom, I’m running late” and it will send a text message from your phone.
Microsoft is testing this new Windows Search interface with its Windows Insiders right now, so that should mean we’ll see it appear in Windows 11 in the coming months. “Looking to next year, work is already underway to bring the new Windows Search experience to the Start menu and have it adapt naturally to different taskbar positions and Windows configurations,” says Rawat. “Our goal is to make Windows Search more capable, with more natural ways to express what you need, richer information in context, and more ways to get things done directly from search.”